Former WINK, FOX 4 weatherman Eric Stone wins world pinball championship in Fort Myers

The world’s best pinball players came to Fort Myers last week. And TV weatherman Eric Stone beat’em all.

The former WINK News and FOX 4 News meteorologist took first prize Sunday at the 2022 IFPA World Pinball Championship. He won $1,000 in cash, a huge trophy and a $7,000 pinball machine from event sponsor Stern Pinball.

It wasn’t easy, he admits.

“I was nervous and I was doing a lot of praying,” he says and laughs.

Stone, 46, has played tournaments before and won one prior world championship. But it’s a lot harder when you’re up against the best of the best, he says.

Unlike his first championship, where anyone could play, this one was invite-only and featured 64 of the world’s best pinball players. They came to Fort Myers’ The Pinball Asylum from as far away as Australia, Finland, Denmark, Canada and Germany.

“It’s definitely more grueling,” Stone says. “I mean, everybody that you face is a great player, especially in the finals. … Here, you’ve got to play your best to beat every single one of ‘em.”

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Event organizers with the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) announced the win on their website Monday.

“Following an epic match that went 6 games,” the website said, “it was Eric Stone who became the latest player to be crowned World Champion, and the 11th player in competitive pinball history to win multiple Major Championships.”

Stone — who divides his time between Fort Myers and Tampa, where he now works as a meteorologist for WFLA/News Channel 8  — took first place after beating Seattle’s Cayle George four games to two. Now Stone is ranked No. 14th in the world, according to the IFPA (he’s previously been as high as No. 1)

Stone says he was nervous in the moments between games. But luckily, most of those nerves evaporated once he stepped up to each pinball machine and that silver ball started shooting around.

“I really had to play well and I had to be consistent and not get too nervous,” he says. “I was a little nervous, but as I was playing, you know, you kind of calm down and you realize what you need to do.

"You realize you’ve got to play your best. Otherwise, someone’s gonna take advantage of your mistakes, and that’s gonna be the end of it.”

Stone won the championship while playing a “Guardians of the Galaxy” pinball machine, but it was the Elton John game “Captain Fantastic” that helped him win two games in a row against George. It’s a game Stone knows well: He’s been playing it since he was 4 and his parents bought it for him to improve his hand-eye coordination.

That’s why Stone chose it to play at the championship, he says. “That’s the game that got me a commanding three-to-one lead in the last two rounds.”

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“Captain Fantastic” made his championship win extra-special, he says. So did playing at private pinball club The Pinball Asylum, where Stone started competing seriously in 2012 and winning championships.

“That’s where it started,” he says.

He ended up beating his final opponent four games out of six in a seven-game match, he says. Stone says he knows George well and knows he’s a terrific player.

“I knew I couldn’t take my foot off the gas, you know what I mean?” he says. “I had to keep going and going strong.”

The championship took place May 26-29 and was closed to the public. It streamed live on Twitch.

Stone says he didn’t practice at all for his championship win. He never does.

“I started playing pinball as a little kid, just like Tiger Woods played golf as a little kid,” Stone said last week. “And I really believe that you develop extra-special skills when you do something as a very, very small child.”

Playing comes easily to Stone, he said. “I don’t practice — at all. The only time I practice a machine is when I don’t know the rules of a game and I’m trying to figure a strategy out.”

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Email him at crunnells@gannett.com or connect on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) and Instagram (@crunnells1).

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: World Pinball Championship: Weatherman Eric Stone of WINK, FOX 4 wins